


Autumn Grief

by Ealasaid, writeyourownstory



Series: Hallmark Channel [2]
Category: 1917 (Movie 2019)
Genre: Family, Grief/Mourning, Hallmark!AU, Multi, chatfic, inspired by Hallmark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27248779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ealasaid/pseuds/Ealasaid, https://archiveofourown.org/users/writeyourownstory/pseuds/writeyourownstory
Summary: Hallmark!AU of the movie "Harvest Love," in which Joseph Blake is a widowed surgeon going back home to the family farm on mandatory holiday because . . . well, he hasn't got anywhere else to be, and he hasn't seen his family since the funeral.
Relationships: Joseph Blake & Tom Blake, Joseph Blake/William Schofield, Tom Blake & William Schofield, past Lieutenant Richards/Joseph Blake, past William Schofield/William Schofield's Wife
Series: Hallmark Channel [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1988683
Comments: 7
Kudos: 4





	Autumn Grief

**Author's Note:**

> Hallmark rewrite #2!

**butler is boo:** “A widowed surgeon visits her family’s pear orchard in hopes of reconnecting with her distant son”  
I just  
Why?

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** What  
is there romance or is it a family thing?

 **butler is boo:** Oh there is def romance— _all_ hallmark movies are “romance”  
She falls for the hired help  
😂

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Okay  
It's Joe  
going back home to reconnect with Tom

 **butler is boo:** YES  
And the hired help is....Will?

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** 🤔  
Yeah, pretty much  
he and Tom are friends

 **butler is boo:** And instead of pear orchard it’s a cherry one  
I’m honestly not really paying attention to the movie let’s create our own

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** lOL  
sounds good  
But you have to tell us some of what happens so we can navigate the plotlines 😂  
and by navigate, I mean "blatantly avoid"

 **butler is boo:** (Ok is the woman is trying to reconnect with her son and he ain’t having NONE of it cause she basically left him with her parents while she worked in the city—and in the process she keeps running into hired help dude and he’s all mysterious and soft spoken and she’s like hmmm)

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Okay it's def Joe  
Tom is like "you were my BROTHER and you LEFT ME FOR YOUR FANCY CITY CAREER"

 **butler is boo:** Oooo yesss!  
  
**Lt. Richards is bae:** Joe's like "WELL I'M HERE NOW" and Tom's like "YEAH because your WIFE DIED"

 **butler is boo:** Ooooo ANGST

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** or husband 🤔  
we could fridge Richards

 **butler is boo:** That’s an idea 🤔

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** . . . wow  
this idea is simultaneously appealing and incredibly saddening

 **butler is boo:** Something a hallmark movie desperately needs!

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** I'm like "it makes perfect sense"  
but my soul is like 😱

 **butler is boo:** My soul: 

**Lt. Richards is bae:** YEP  
bc now I see their wonderful happy life  
they're both doctors  
v charming, power couple at the hospital

 **butler is boo:** Idk how her husband dies—let’s say car crash

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** yeah  
wow, depressing as _shit  
_Joe's a fucking ghost for the next year  
the hospital persuades him to take a massive holiday, finally

 **butler is boo:** And he goes hooooommmme

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Tom's not so confrontational, he's just like "???"  
"you never needed us before"  
like  
distanced  
So Joe's just kicking his heels around  
(oh and their parents are still around. It's Tom with elderly parents who are trying to be supportive but like, Joe has been away for a long time)

 **butler is boo:** Sounds like a good start to a hallmark movie  
And while he’s kicking around, he runs into the hired help—ie Will

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** yesssssss  
mysterious hired help seem unusually close with the family

 **butler is boo:** (This guys personality is like chill)

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** SO chill  
so like, the second night or something Joe is out on the porch after some confrontation with Tom just like "what am I doing with my life"  
mysterious hired help is like "hey, you alright out here?"  
"it's awfully late"  
Joe just like doesn't know this guy, just exchanges some stilted conversation and then makes excuses and goes back inside  
something else he notices now that he's home  
there are?? like, small children? running around?  
Mum and Dad seem to have adopted them as like, grandchildren  
Joe is very confused

 **butler is boo:** Ooooooo  
(I’m guessing those children are _Will’s_ )

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** (😏)

 **butler is boo:** 🙌🙌🙌

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** anyway after a few days, Joe finds it easier to fit back into farm life and stuff  
lots of hard work that's actually physically demanding or something, getting reaccustomed to it is a _trip_  
Week 2 he notices the children  
Week 3 he asks who they are  
bc he walks into the kitchen during lunch and finds mum feeding them  
they're like "oh these are the Schofields" but don't really answer why they're basically being treated like grandkids

 **butler is boo:** 😂

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** meanwhile  
he's working with Tom and the mysterious help, whose name turns out to be Will  
who is v quiet but he and Tom get along well  
better than Joe and Tom, and that's annoying

 **butler is boo:** Ooooo  
Joe is def jelly and maybe a tiny bit hostile towards this mysterious Will cause it sorta looks like he replaced him

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Yes!  
he gets even more perplexed when he finds out it's Will's children who are basically being treated as grandchildren  
asks his mum like "why on _earth_ did you adopt _them?"_ you know, quietly, in private  
and she gives him this _look_ like _Joseph Andrew Blake I raised you better young man_ and says very bluntly "William needed some help taking care of them after his wife died, obviously"  
and Joe's like _oh shit you did raise me better_ and slinks off all depressed again  
first time he'd heard that Will was a widower too

 **butler is boo:** 🥺🥺🥺  
And like, has a new perspective on the whole thing

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** yepppppppp  
is like "no wonder he's silently hanging around all the time"  
and like all those times he'd sort of checked in on Joe and stuff  
v quietly and unobtrusively

 **butler is boo:** This Will is _soooo nice omg_

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** lol lmao  
he heard the older son was coming back and the whole family talked for days about "we haven't seen him since the funeral" and like, pragmatically expecting Joe to be a fucking mess  
so he was like "well, I can relate, might as well do my part" esp since Tom and his parents have been so lovely and helped him so much  
like real family  
it's just no one bothered to really introduce him to Joe and vice versa or, if they did, it's like -- Joe was clearly miles away or didn't put things together because he legit is a fucking mess

 **butler is boo:** 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺  
_Willllllll_

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** (Joe by the way has basically been burying himself in work for the last year instead of confronting reality)

 **butler is boo:** (DEF a mess wow)

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** (wow this is so angsty, damn)

 **butler is boo:** (I am loving it—WAY BETTER HALLMARK QUALITY)  
Hallmark's too afraid to get too angsty

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** GOOD THING WE AREN'T

 **butler is boo:** 🙌🙌🙌  
_We thrive on pain_

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** 👏👏👏👏👏  
anyway, after finding _that_ out  
Joe quietly is like "I was sorry to hear about your wife" and Will just _knows_ it's real, bc Joe is literally there right now

 **butler is boo:** 👀

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** but he's just like _awkward throat clearing_ "yeah, sorry to hear about your husband"  
/awkward man moment that drags and neither of them know what to say

 **butler is boo:** 🥺🥺

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** fortunately TOM shows up and is like "right we're doing this next, come on" /shooes them away

 **butler is boo:** 😂  
Tom the human ice breaker seriously

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** he SO is  
(later he's like "hey, Joe didn't upset you or anything, did he?")  
(and Will's like "no, he's fine. he just heard about Ellie is all")

 **butler is boo:** (Oh sweet babe so worried for Will)  
(🥺)

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** (Tom's still suspicious bc from his perspective, Joe hasn't been there for him and so he thinks Joe's just like, busy being insensitive)  
(Will's like "look I'd be just as oblivious as he was if I'd been him. I was lucky you and your parents insisted on butting in. He hasn't had that, remember?")  
(Tom's like muttering "yeah well whose fault is that" but lets it go and gets all thoughtful)

 **butler is boo:** (ooOOOOHH WILL!)  
(And this would be the part in a hallmark movie where Tom starts to give Joe a chance to prove that he wants to be there with his family)

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** (That is basically what happens)  
Tom gets a lot less passively antagonistic and makes more active efforts to pull Joe into things  
Will helps   
between the two of them they start chivvying Joe into doing more things  
gently trying to get him to open up about the last year/Ben

 **butler is boo:** 😂  
Maybe Will gets more out of him on that front because he’s not pushy and understands how hard it is to open up about that stuff and that appeals to Joe

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** yeeeee  
and Tom learns to listen a little more when it comes to this  
and sloooooooowly  
Joe is like relaxing

 **butler is boo:** 👏👏👏

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** but  
that just means  
that inevitably  
he has to seriously confront Ben's death

 **butler is boo:** 🥺

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** he probably winds up crying on his mum for most of a day whenever it happens

 **butler is boo:** 🥺🥺🥺🥺  
(Oh, so painful)

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Tom and Will are under Strict Orders to treat him like normal the next day

 **butler is boo:** Will def gets this because he’s had similar instances with Mrs Blake and knows how hard it is to be pitied for

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** YES  
yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss  
and Tom knows how bad it makes Will feel  
so he's good about it  
Will also mostly follows this, but also makes sure Joe gets casual shoulder-squeeze of solidarity

 **butler is boo:** Oooooh yessss

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Joe's like 🥺  
buuuuuuuut  
it's also nice to know someone knows  
so besides wanting to like, cease existing most of the day, it's not actively painful  
(well just that numb sort of "wow I'm so emotionally exhausted and this is all I have to look forward to -- wow" /overwhelmed)

 **butler is boo:** 👀  
Jeeeesus  
We are getting angsty 😂  
Sooooo gooood tho

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** ANYWAY THEY WORK REALLY HARD ALL DAY and Joe gets a solid night's sleep for once

 **butler is boo:** Gotta pick them cherries!!

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** 👏🍒  
but as it turns out  
there's a greater threat to Joe's recovery  
and that  
is the end of his vacation time

 **butler is boo:** 😱  
Nooooo 

**Lt. Richards is bae:** the hospital gave him like six weeks or something? said that he'd taken no vacation the last two years so they insisted he take it now and also that he have like an extra week of bereavement  
bc he didn't take much time after Ben's death  
just  
sort of plowed on through everything  
but anyway that time is coming to an end and Joe for some reason wasn't expecting it at all  
and then suddenly, it's just a few days away  
and only remembers when his dad asks about it over dinner

 **butler is boo:** 🥺  
And like every female protagonist of a hallmark movie he wants to stay!

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** oh boy DOES HE  
but honestly  
it's more like he is starting to realise he can't keep going like he was  
and he doesn't know if he can go back to face that

 **butler is boo:** He needs a support system and he can’t get that back in the city

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** ^^^^

 **butler is boo:** And Tom is def worries cause he’s afraid joe will go back to being distant once he’s back in the city

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** absolutely  
he's like "It's been nice having my brother back"  
(he says this to Will, not Joe)  
and Will's like "tell him that"  
"he should hear it. I get the feeling he doesn't really want to head back"

 **butler is boo:** 👏👏👏

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Tom's like "and give up his fancy doctor's life? yeah, no"

 **butler is boo:** 😔 thats usually how these characters think  
They don’t want to get in the way of what’ll make the protagonist “happy”

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** (well, and also the economic considerations)

 **butler is boo:** (Oh yes definitely) 

**Lt. Richards is bae:** (as a doctor, Joe is making like three times what the family farm is)

 **butler is boo:** (Right? It’s just inconceivable to him) 

**Lt. Richards is bae:** Tom jokes about it being fancy, but more seriously it's just flat out -- that's a good living and who would give that up?  
Will's like "look. He doesn't have anyone there and you saw how bad he was doing. You think he's going to last if he goes back alone?"  
and they have a very practical discussion where it is determined that no, Tom can't move with Joe to the city, no, Will can't move either -- not with two children, and also _he_ certainly isn't well enough to be someone's sole support  
and obviously Mr and Mrs Blake aren't going to  
and Tom at the end is like "FINE fine, so it's better if he doesn't go back"

 **butler is boo:** 😂

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Mr Blake, who has just walked in, is like "oh, good, I'm glad you already decided that"  
"I was just coming to see if you had any ideas about how we could persuade him to stay"

 **butler is boo:** 👏😂  
Pretty sure Joe is already on the fence about returning anyways so hopefully it wouldn’t be that hard 

**Lt. Richards is bae:** I was about to say --  
meanwhile, Joe's in his room just sitting on the bed  
he's basically paralyzed, he has no idea what to do  
(this is all after dinner by the way)  
ends up going out driving to a liquor store and gets something and comes home and quietly drinks on the porch, hoping that'll help him like, get some distance in his brain so he can actually think about it without hyperventilating from anxiety  
or at least, that's his _plan_  
Will spots him heading out and insists on coming with Joe

 **butler is boo:** Ooooooo

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** is v non-confrontational, like "yeah, sure, that sounds like an idea, not going to stop you"  
"just, y'know, let me make sure you don't do something horribly irresponsible like drink and drive"

 **butler is boo:** 👆

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** they come back  
Will sticks around  
they knock around on the porch and he offers a listening ear once Joe is finally able to start talking through it  
it's all very angsty  
Joe starts crying silently at some point and just does that for a while bc yeah, he could go back to the hospital and the city but Ben won't be there and it's like legit just awful  
"does it ever get better?" he asks, meaning the grief, and Will's like "if you stop avoiding it -- sometimes"  
"but it fucking sucks and it's hard, no way around that"

 **butler is boo:** 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺  
And that, that hits Joe like—he doesn’t think he can open up this way to anyone back in the city.   
Of his grief just being accepted so fully instead of being dismissed

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** like when he's sober and less emotional, he knows he probably could have found supports in the city  
but  
the effort it would have taken was just too much

 **butler is boo:** Oh yes 😔

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** and he's like "I don't want to go" but just helplessly bc he doesn't know what else to do  
and Will's like _fucking hell Tom you had one job_ but of course they only _just_ talked about that, Tom didn't have enough time  
and Joe's just continuing like "Tom's still pissed at me for going and I don't know if I'd even be welcome here"  
and Will's like "well, your parents took me in, and I'm not even their son"

 **butler is boo:** 👆👆👆👆👆  
And he’s like “your family LOVES you you idiot, just talk to them” 

**Lt. Richards is bae:** "stop that nonsense Joe, of course they'll welcome you back"  
by this point Joe is reeeeeeeeeally drunk  
and sad  
  
really sad  
So Will ends up putting him to bed and he does stay that night bc wow Joe is very drunk

 **butler is boo:**   
I think by this point they def have feelings for one another

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll  
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah . . . . . . . .

 **butler is boo:** 😂

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Joe maaaaaaybe drunkenly kisses Will and there's a moment where it's like  
p clear that Will is tempted, oh yes  
but  
he's v gently like "c'mon Joe, even if I'm ready to try again, you're not"

 **butler is boo:** 😭

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** Joe's all  "yeah okay"  
anyway they fall asleep holding hands

 **butler is boo:** BLESS IT 🥰🥰🥰🥰

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** anyway in the morning Joe does wake up alone bc Will had to get up and go check on his children  
(he, by the way, is living in like the converted back room of the barn or something, idk)  
(he works for the Blakes and gets room and board for him and his children)  
(and it's complicated but tl;dr: he can just like walk a minute to get to where his kids are)  
but Tom's waiting for Joe at the breakfast table and launches into this whole spiel about why Joe should stay and Joe's a bit taken aback and also?? it's early and he's really hungover  
but mum and dad aren't contradicting Tom and mum puts a hand on his shoulder and is just like "we'd really rather you stayed, dear" and so he's just like "lsakdjlajdslaj fine"  
and then he just  
feels _so relieved_  
and he calls up the hospital and is like "I'll be back in a few days but it's mostly to tender my resignation bc I really need to take longer than just a month and a half off and yeah"  
spends the next few months alternately settling his affairs in the city and packing to move back and also tries to spend as much time at home as possible bc it's really hard packing up everything, he has to go through all of Ben's things and stuff  
Tom and Will take turns helping him with that  
staying with him a few days at a time  
but eventually it's all sorted and he's back home and he spends the next year just dealing with everything  
maybe a year after that he gets a job in town because one of the old gps was set to retire and she asked Joe to take over her practice  
and then like half a year or a year after that he and Will decide to give it a go!  
and I think that's the end lmao

\--:0:--

 **Lt. Richards is bae:** so how did that one end? 

**butler is boo:** Eh, there was a misunderstanding—dude thought she was going back to the city to accept a new job or something and take her kid with her  
So he acts cold towards her and she’s like “what I was gonna say I was staying but he won’t even talk to me”  
And it’s her KID who tells him and he’s like “oh I goofed”  
And he puts on this big gesture and surprises her and they kiss and the end 

**Lt. Richards is bae:** 🙄

 **butler is boo:** 😩

**Author's Note:**

> (If this sounds remotely familiar, it's bc I distinctly recall brainstorming a Lilo & Stitch AU with @Milothatches a million years back on the 2nd Devons where Joe & Will connected via grief? Tom also had an alien as a dog, but obvs that's not what happens here. ~E)


End file.
